Dragon Attached to Station, Returns to Earth in January

ISS - Expedition 57 Mission patch.

December 8, 2018

Three days after its launch from Florida, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was installed on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 10:36 a.m. EST.

SpaceX CRS-16: Dragon berthing

The 16th contracted commercial resupply mission from SpaceX delivers more than 5,600 pounds of research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory. Among the research it will bring to station, science investigations and technology demonstrations aboard Dragon include:

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) will provide high-quality laser ranging observations of the Earth’s forests and topography required to advance the understanding of important carbon and water cycling processes, biodiversity, and habitat. GEDI will be mounted on the Japanese Experiment Module’s Exposed Facility and provide the first high-resolution observations of forest vertical structure at a global scale. These observations will quantify the aboveground carbon stored in vegetation and changes that result from vegetation disturbance and recovery, the potential for forests to sequester carbon in the future, and habitat structure and its influence on habitat quality and biodiversity.

Image above: Flying over Peru, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'592 Km/h, altitude: 409,62 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on December 8, 2018 at 14:38 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

A small satellite deployment mechanism, called SlingShot, will be ride up in Dragon and then be installed in a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft prior to its departure from the space station. SlingShot can accommodate as many as 18 CubeSats of any format. After the Cygnus cargo ship departs from station, the spacecraft navigates to an altitude of 280 to 310 miles (an orbit higher than that of the space station) to deploy the satellites.

Robotic Refueling Mission-3 (RRM3) will demonstrate the first transfer and long-term storage of liquid methane, a cryogenic fluid, in microgravity. The ability to replenish and store cryogenic fluids, which can function as a fuel or coolant, will help enable long duration journeys to destinations, such as the Moon and Mars.

Image above: Dec. 8, 2018: International Space Station Configuration. Six spaceships are attached at the space station including the U.S. resupply ships Northrop Grumman Cygnus and the SpaceX Dragon; and Russia’s Progress 70 and 71 resupply ships and the Soyuz MS-09 and MS-10 crew ships all from Roscosmos. Image Credit: NASA.

Growth of Large, Perfect Protein Crystals for Neutron Crystallography (Perfect Crystals) crystallizes an antioxidant protein found inside the human body to analyze its shape. This research may shed light on how the protein helps protect the human body from ionizing radiation and oxidants created as a byproduct of metabolism. For best results, analysis requires large crystals with minimal imperfections, which are more easily produced in the microgravity environment of the space station.

Dragon is scheduled to depart the station in January 2019 and return to Earth with more than 4,000 pounds of research, hardware and crew supplies.

Related article:

ISS Crew Captures Dragon
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/12/iss-crew-captures-dragon.html

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI): https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/gedi-to-measure-earths-forests

SlingShot: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7847

Robotic Refueling Mission-3 (RRM3): https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/11/nasa-to-launch-new-refueling-mission.html

Perfect Crystals: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7617

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ISS Crew Captures Dragon

SpaceX - CRS-16 Dragon patch.

December 8, 2018

While the International Space Station was traveling about 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean north of Papua New Guinea, Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) and Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor, captured the Dragon spacecraft at 7:21 a.m. EST using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Image above: The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is moments way from being captured with the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Ground controllers will now send commands to begin the robotic installation of the spacecraft on bottom of the station’s Harmony module. NASA Television coverage of installation is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Watch online at http://www.nasa.gov/live.

The Dragon lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Wednesday, Dec 5 with more than 5,600 pounds of research, equipment, cargo and supplies that will support dozens of investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory.

SpaceX CRS-16: Dragon capture

The International Space Station is an accessible space laboratory with unparalleled capability that is increasing knowledge of engineering and physical sciences, biology, the Earth, and the universe through research and technology demonstrations and providing the foundation for continuing human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA’s human research is closing the gaps in current scientific understanding of how best to predict, assess, and solve the problems that humans encounter while living and working in space, and extend that knowledge to protect the women and men who will go forward to the Moon and Mars.

Related links:

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Marck Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

China launches lunar rover in historic mission to the dark side of the moon

CLEP - China Lunar Exploration Program logo.

Dec. 7, 2018

Launch of the Long March 3B rocket carrying Chang'e-4 at 18:23 UTC Dec. 7. Credit: CASC

China launched the Chang’e 4 spacecraft atop a Long March 3B rocket on Friday in a milestone mission to land a rover on the far side of the moon. The Chang’e name comes from the Chinese goddess of the moon.

Chang’e-4 launch

While the dark side of the moon has been seen and mapped before, the successful landing of Chang’e 4 would represent the first time any spacecraft has touched down there. The mission is part of China’s heavy investment in lunar exploration and growing capabilities in space through the China National Space Administration.

Chang’e 4 comes about two years after China made the first soft landing on the moon since 1976. Similar in design to that Chang’e 3 craft and its “Jade Rabbit” rover, the Chang’e 4 spacecraft will carry a bigger payload and more capabilities. The space agency will use the craft to study geological conditions on the far side of the moon.

Chang’e 4 Rover, Lander and relay Satellite. Image Credit: CASC

It will take Chang’e 4 about three days to travel to the moon, where it will spend about three weeks in orbit. The lander and rover are expected to touch down on the Von Karman crater sometime around Jan. 1. The crater is a relatively flat spot on the moon’s far side, according to a GB Times report, although the landing will present many new challenges for China. The rover will be able to communicate with Earth thanks to a relay satellite China launched into lunar orbit in May.

The Chang’e name comes from the Chinese goddess of the moon. In the ancient tale, Chang’e died after taking an elixir. When she flew to the heavens, she landed on the moon as her final resting place.

The mission’s main contractor, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, declared the launch as a success on Friday, as the spacecraft headed toward the moon.

A render of the Chang’e-4 lander, released on Aug. 15, 2018. Image Credit: CASC

China is quickly expanding its space capabilities – through both CNSA and state-backed companies. China led among countries expanding market share in the space industry during the third quarter of this year, according to a report by investment firm Space Angels.

“The simple but often missed point is that this new space age is global, which seems to get lost in the U.S.,” ARK Invest analyst Sam Korus told CNBC about the Chang’e 4 mission.

2018 has seen China pour more than $217 million in space companies, nearly matching the $230 million invested in all of last year. Of the $16.1 billion invested in private space companies and partnerships since 2009, China now represents 3 percent, with about half a billion dollars. That may not seem like much – but nearly all of China’s investment has come since 2016.

For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC): http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: CASC/CNBC/Yun Li/SciNews.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Double Trouble: A White Dwarf Surprises Astronomers

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

Dec. 7, 2018

Astronomers have detected a bright X-ray outburst from a star in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy almost 200,000 light years from Earth. A combination of X-ray and optical data indicate that the source of this radiation is a white dwarf star that may be the fastest-growing white dwarf ever observed.

In several billion years, our Sun will run out of most of its nuclear fuel and shrink down to a much smaller, fainter “white dwarf” star about the size of Earth.  Because a mass equivalent to that of the Sun is packed into such a small volume, the gravity on the surface of a white dwarf is several hundred thousand times that of Earth.

Unlike our Sun, most stars including white dwarfs, do not exist in isolation, but instead are part of pairs called “binary systems.”  If the stars are close enough, the gravity of the white dwarf can pull matter away from its companion.

A new study based on observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has reported the discovery of distinctive X-ray emission from a binary system containing a white dwarf called ASASSN-16oh. The discovery involves the detection of low-energy – what astronomers refer to as “soft” – X-rays, produced by gas at temperatures of several hundred thousand degrees. In contrast, higher-energy X-rays reveal phenomena at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees. The X-ray emission from ASASSN-16oh is much brighter than the soft X-rays produced by the atmospheres of normal stars, placing it in the special category of a supersoft X-ray source.

For years, astronomers have thought that supersoft X-ray emission from white dwarf stars is produced by nuclear fusion in a hot, dense layer of hydrogen and helium nuclei. This volatile material accumulated from the infall of matter from the companion star onto the surface of the white dwarf, and led to a nuclear fusion explosion much like a hydrogen bomb. 

However, ASASSN-16oh shows there is more to the story. This binary was first discovered by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASASSN), a collection of about 20 optical telescopes distributed around the globe to automatically survey the entire sky every night for supernovas and other transient events.  Astronomers then used Chandra and Swift to detect the supersoft X-ray emission.

“In the past, the supersoft sources have all been associated with nuclear fusion on the surface of white dwarfs,” said lead author Tom Maccarone, a professor in the Texas Tech Department of Physics & Astronomy who led the new paper that appears in the December 3rd issue of Nature Astronomy.

If nuclear fusion is the cause of the supersoft X-rays from ASASSN-16oh then it should begin with an explosion and the emission should come from the entire surface of the white dwarf. However, the optical light does not increase quickly enough to be caused by an explosion and the Chandra data show that the emission is coming from a region smaller than the surface of the white dwarf. The source is also a hundred times fainter in optical light than white dwarfs known to be undergoing fusion on their surface. These observations, plus the lack of evidence for gas flowing away from the white dwarf, provide strong arguments against fusion having taken place on the white dwarf.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Because none of the signs of nuclear fusion are present, the authors present a different scenario. As with the fusion explanation the white dwarf is pulling gas away from a companion star, a red giant. In a process called accretion, the gas is pulled onto a large disk surrounding the white dwarf and becomes hotter as it spirals toward the white dwarf, as shown in our illustration. The gas then falls onto the white dwarf, producing X-rays along a belt where the disk meets the star. The rate of inflow of matter through the disk varies by a large amount. When the material starts flowing more quickly, the X-ray brightness of the system becomes much higher.

“The transfer of mass is happening at a higher rate than in any system we’ve caught in the past,” added Maccarone.

If the white dwarf keeps gaining mass it may reach a mass limit and destroy itself in a Type Ia supernova explosion, a type of event used to discover that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The team’s analysis suggests that the white dwarf is already unusually massive so ASASSN-16oh may be relatively close – in astronomical terms – to exploding as a supernova.

“Our result contradicts a decades-long consensus about how supersoft X-ray emission from white dwarfs is produced,” said co-author Thomas Nelson from the University of Pittsburgh. “We now know that the X-ray emission can be made in two different ways: by nuclear fusion or by the accretion of matter from a companion.”

Also involved in the study were scientists from Texas A&M University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Southampton, University of the Free State in the Republic of South Africa, the South African Astronomical Observatory, Michigan State University, State University of New Jersey, Warsaw University Observatory, Ohio State University and the University of Warwick.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Read more from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2018/wdac/

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds

NASA - InSight Mission patch.

Dec. 7, 2018

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander, which touched down on Mars just 10 days ago, has provided the first ever "sounds" of Martian winds on the Red Planet. A media teleconference about these sounds will be held today at 12:30 p.m. EST (9:30 a.m. PST).

InSight sensors captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the wind, estimated to be blowing between 10 to 15 mph (5 to 7 meters a second) on Dec. 1, from northwest to southeast. The winds were consistent with the direction of dust devil streaks in the landing area, which were observed from orbit.

"Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves."

Image above: One of two Mars InSight's 7-foot (2.2 meter) wide solar panels was imaged by the lander's Instrument Deployment Camera, which is fixed to the elbow of its robotic arm. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Teleconference audio and accompanying visuals will stream live on NASA’s website. A follow-along page is available at: https://www.nasa.gov/insightmarswind

Two very sensitive sensors on the spacecraft detected these wind vibrations: an air pressure sensor inside the lander and a seismometer sitting on the lander's deck, awaiting deployment by InSight’s robotic arm. The two instruments recorded the wind noise in different ways. The air pressure sensor, part of the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS), which will collect meteorological data, recorded these air vibrations directly. The seismometer recorded lander vibrations caused by the wind moving over the spacecraft's solar panels, which are each 7 feet (2.2 meters) in diameter and stick out from the sides of the lander like a giant pair of ears.

This is the only phase of the mission during which the seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), will be capable of detecting vibrations generated directly by the lander. In a few weeks, it will be placed on the Martian surface by InSight's robotic arm, then covered by a domed shield to protect it from wind and temperature changes. It still will detect the lander's movement, though channeled through the Martian surface. For now, it’s recording vibrational data that scientists later will be able to use to cancel out noise from the lander when SEIS is on the surface, allowing them to detect better actual marsquakes.

When earthquakes occur on Earth, their vibrations, which bounce around inside our planet, make it “ring” similar to how a bell creates sound. InSight will see if tremors, or marsquakes, have a similar effect on Mars. SEIS will detect these vibrations that will tell us about the Red Planet’s deep interior. Scientists hope this will lead to new information on the formation of the planets in our solar system, perhaps even of our own planet.

SEIS, provided by the French Space Agency CNES, includes two sets of seismometers. Those contributed by the French will be used once SEIS is deployed from the deck of the lander. But SEIS also includes short period (SP) silicon sensors developed by Imperial College London with electronics from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. These sensors can work while on the deck of the lander and are capable of detecting vibrations up to frequencies of nearly 50 hertz, at the lower range of human hearing.

Sounds of Mars: NASA’s InSight Senses Martian Wind

“The InSight lander acts like a giant ear,” said Tom Pike, InSight science team member and sensor designer at Imperial College London. "The solar panels on the lander's sides respond to pressure fluctuations of the wind. It's like InSight is cupping its ears and hearing the Mars wind beating on it. When we looked at the direction of the lander vibrations coming from the solar panels, it matches the expected wind direction at our landing site."

Pike compared the effect to a flag in the wind. As a flag breaks up the wind, it creates oscillations in air pressure that the human ear perceives as flapping. Separately, APSS records changes in pressure directly from the thin Martian air.

"That's literally what sound is — changes in air pressure," said Don Banfield InSight's science lead for APSS from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "You hear that whenever you speak to someone across the room."

Unlike the vibrations recorded by the short period sensors, audio from APSS is about 10 hertz, below the range of human hearing.

The raw audio sample from the seismometer was released unaltered; a second version was raised two octaves to be more perceptible to the human ear – especially when heard through laptop or mobile speakers. The second audio sample from APSS was sped up by a factor of 100, which shifted it up in frequency.

An even clearer sound from Mars is yet to come. In just a couple years, NASA's Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to land with two microphones on board. The first, provided by JPL, is included specifically to record, for the first time, the sound of a Mars landing. The second is part of the SuperCam and will be able to detect the sound of the instrument's laser as it zaps different materials. This will help identify these materials based on the change in sound frequency.

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including CNES and the German Aerospace Center, support the InSight mission. CNES and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris provided SEIS, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología supplied the wind sensors.

Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France are responsible for delivering the SuperCam instrument to NASA. The SuperCam microphone is provided by Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, a French higher education institution.

Related article:

NASA's Mars InSight Flexes Its Arm
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/12/nasas-mars-insight-flexes-its-arm.html

For more information about InSight, and to follow along on its flight to Mars, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/insight

Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at: https://www.nasa.gov/live
and https://youtube.com/NASAJPL/live

Image (mentioned), Video (NASA/JPL), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/JoAnna Wendel/Katherine Brown/JPL/Andrew Good.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Planetary Defense: The Bennu Experiment

NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission logo.

December 7, 2018

On Dec. 3, after traveling billions of kilometers from Earth, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached its target, Bennu, and kicked off a nearly two-year, up-close investigation of the asteroid. It will inspect nearly every square inch of this ancient clump of rubble left over from the formation of our solar system. Ultimately, the spacecraft will pick up a sample of pebbles and dust from Bennu's surface and deliver it to Earth in 2023.

Generations of planetary scientists will get to study pieces of the primitive materials that formed our cosmic neighborhood and to better understand the role asteroids may have played in delivering life-forming compounds to planets and moons.

Image above: This artist's concept shows the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with the Touch-And-Go Sample Arm Mechanism or TAGSAM. The mission aims to return a sample of Bennu's surface coating to Earth for study as well as return detailed information about the asteroid and it's trajectory. Image Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

But it's not just history that the mission to Bennu will help uncover. Scientists studying the rock through OSIRIS-REx's instruments in space will also shape our future. As they collect the most detailed information yet about the forces that move asteroids, experts from NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, who are responsible for detecting potentially hazardous asteroids, will improve their predictions of which ones could be on a crash-course with our planet.

Here is how the OSIRIS-REx mission will support this work:

How scientists predict Bennu's whereabouts

About a third of a mile, or half a kilometer, wide, Bennu is large enough to reach Earth's surface; many smaller space objects, in contrast, burn up in our atmosphere. If it impacted Earth, Bennu would cause widespread damage. Asteroid experts at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, project that Bennu will come close enough to Earth over the next century to pose a 1 in 2,700 chance of impacting it between 2175 and 2196. Put another way, those odds mean there is a 99.963 percent chance the asteroid will miss the Earth. Even so, astronomers want to know exactly where Bennu is located at all times.

Astronomers have estimated Bennu's future trajectory after observing it several times since it was discovered in 1999. They've turned their optical, infrared and radio telescopes toward the asteroid every time it came close enough to Earth, about every six years, to deduce features such as its shape, rotation rate and trajectory.

"We know within a few kilometers where Bennu is right now," said Steven Chesley, senior research scientist at CNEOS and an OSIRIS-REx team member whose job it is to predict Bennu's future trajectory.

Why Bennu's future trajectory predictions get fuzzy

Scientists have estimated Bennu's trajectory around the Sun far into the future. Their predictions are informed by ground observations and mathematical calculations that account for the gravitational nudging of Bennu by the Sun, the Moon, planets and other asteroids, plus non-gravitational factors.

Given these parameters, astronomers can predict the next four exact dates (in September of 2054, 2060, 2080 and 2135) that Bennu will come within 5 million miles (7.5 million kilometers or .05 astronomical units) of Earth. That's close enough that Earth's gravity will slightly bend Bennu's orbital path as it passes by. As a result, the uncertainty about where the asteroid will be each time it loops back around the Sun will grow, causing predictions about Bennu's future orbit to become increasingly hazy after 2060.

Image above: This image of Bennu was taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a distance of around 50 miles (80 km). Image Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

In 2060, Bennu will pass Earth at about twice the distance from here to the Moon. But it could pass at any point in a 19-mile (30-kilometer) window of space. A very small difference in position within that window will get magnified enormously in future orbits and make it increasingly hard to predict Bennu's trajectory.

As a result, when this asteroid comes back near Earth in 2080, according to Chesley's calculations, the best window we can get on its whereabouts is nearly 9,000 miles (14,000 kilometers) wide. By 2135, when Bennu's shifted orbit is expected to bring it closer than the Moon, its flyby window grows wider, to nearly 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers). This will be Bennu's closest approach to Earth over the five centuries for which we have reliable calculations.

"Right now, Bennu has the best orbit of any asteroid in our database," Chesley said. "And yet, after that encounter in 2135, we really can't say exactly where it is headed."

There's another phenomenon nudging Bennu's orbit and muddying future impact projections. It's called the Yarkovsky effect. Having nothing to do with gravity, the Yarkovsky effect sways Bennu's orbit because of heat from the Sun.

"There are a lot of factors that might affect the predictability of Bennu's trajectory in the future, but most of them are relatively small," says William Bottke, an asteroid expert at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a participating scientist on the OSIRIS-REx mission. "The one that's most sizeable is Yarkvovsky."

This heat nudge was named after the Polish civil engineer who first described it in 1901: Ivan Osipovich Yarkovsky. He suggested that sunlight warms one side of a small, dark asteroid and some hours later radiates that heat away as the asteroid rotates its hot side into cold darkness. This thrusts the rock pile a bit, either toward the Sun or away from it, depending on the direction of its rotation.

In Bennu's case, astronomers have calculated that the Yarkovsky effect has shifted its orbit about 0.18 miles (284 meters) per year toward the Sunsince 1999. In fact, it helped deliver Bennu to our part of the solar system, in the first place, from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter over billions of years. Now, Yarkovsky is complicating our efforts to make predictions about Bennu's path relative to Earth.

Getting face-to-face with the asteroid will help

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will use its suite of instruments to transmit radio tracking signals and capture optical images of Bennu that will help NASA scientists determine its precise position in the solar system and its exact orbital path. Combined with existing, ground-based observations, the space measurements will help clarify how Bennu's orbit is changing over time.

Additionally, astronomers will get to test their understanding of the Yarkovksy effect on a real-life asteroid for the first time. They will instruct the spacecraft to follow Bennu in its orbit about the Sun for about two years to see whether it's moving along an expected path based on gravity and Yarkovsky theories. Any differences between the predictions and reality could be used to refine models of the Yarkovsky effect.

But even more significant to understanding Yarkovsky better will be the thermal measurements of Bennu. During its mission, OSIRIS-REx will track how much solar heat radiates off the asteroid, and where on the surface it's coming from-data that will help confirm and refine calculations of the Yarkovsky effect on asteroids.

The spacecraft also will address some open questions about the Yarkovsky theory. One of them, said Chesley, is how do boulders and craters on the surface of an asteroid change the way photons scatter off of it as it cools, carrying away momentum from the hotter side and thereby nudging the asteroid in the opposite direction? OSIRIS-REx will help scientists understand by mapping the rockiness of Bennu's surface.

"We know surface roughness is going to affect the Yarkovsky effect; we have models" said Chesley. "But the models are speculative. No one has been able to test them."

After the OSIRIS-REx mission, Chesley said, NASA's trajectory projections for Bennu will be about 60 times better than they are now.

Related article:

OSIRIS-REx Arrives at Bennu
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/12/osiris-rex-arrives-at-bennu.html

Related links:

Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS): https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/

OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/JoAnna Wendel/JPL/DC Agle.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Learning from lunar lights

Asteroid Watch logo.

7 December 2018

Every few hours observing the Moon, ESA’s ‘NELIOTA’ project discovers a brilliant flash of light across its surface – the result of an object hurtling through space and striking our unprotected rocky neighbour at vast speed. Based at the Kryoneri telescope of the National Observatory of Athens, this important project is now being extended to January 2021.

Lunar impact Gif

From the Moon's past, to Earth's home

Impact flashes are referred to as ‘transient lunar phenomena’, because although common, they are fleeting occurrences, lasting just fractions of a second. This makes them difficult to study, and because the objects that cause them are too small to see, impossible to predict.

For this reason scientists are studying lunar flashes with great interest, not only for what they can tell us about the Moon and its history, but also about Earth and its future.

SMART-1 view of Shackleton crater at lunar South Pole

By observing lunar impacts, NELIOTA (NEO Lunar Impacts and Optical TrAnsients) aims to determine the size and distribution of near-Earth objects (NEOs) – meteoroids, asteroids or comets. With this information, the risk these space rocks pose to Earth can be better understood.

The world's largest eye on the Moon

In February 2017, a 22-month campaign began to observe lunar flashes with the 1.2 metre Kryoneri telescope, the largest telescope on Earth to monitor the Moon.

The flashes of light caused by lunar impacts are far dimmer than the sunlight reflected off the Moon. For this reason, we can only observe these impacts on the Moon’s ‘dark side’ – between New Moon and First Quarter, and between Last Quarter and New Moon. The Moon must also be above the horizon, and observations require a fast-frame camera, such as the Andor Zyla sCMOS used in the NELIOTA project.

The Kryoneri Observatory – the world's largest eye on the Moon

To date, in the 90 hours of possible observation time that these factors allowed, 55 lunar impact events have been observed. Extrapolating from this data, scientists estimate that there are, on average, almost 8 flashes per hour across the entire surface of the Moon. With the extension of this observing campaign to 2021, further data should improve impact statistics.

Locations of lunar impact flashes detected by the NELIOTA project

The NELIOTA system is the first to use a 1.2 m-telescope for monitoring the Moon, and as such is able to detect flashes two magnitudes fainter than other lunar monitoring programs, which typically use 0.5 m-telescopes or smaller.

Another unique feature of the NELIOTA project is its ability to monitor the Moon in two ‘photometric bands’, which recently enabled the first-ever refereed publication to determine the temperature of lunar impact flashes – ranging from 1300 C to 2800 C.

A moderm approach to an ancient phenomenon

For at least a thousand years, people claim to have spotted flashes lighting up regions of the Moon, yet only recently have we had telescopes and cameras powerful enough to characterise the size, speed, and frequency of these events.

While our planet has lived with the risk, and reality, of bombardment from objects in space for as long as it has been in existence, we are now able to monitor our skies with more accuracy than ever before.

Near-Earth objects

The NELIOTA project relies on funding from ESA’s Science programme, and is one exciting part of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme, which is building infrastructure in space and on the ground to improve our monitoring and understanding of potential Earth hazards.

The programme is currently in the process of setting up a network of Flyeye telescopes across the globe, to scan the skies for risky asteroids, including those that could hit the Moon.

In the future, ESA will move towards mitigation and active planetary defence, and is currently planning the ambitious Hera mission to test asteroid deflection.

Related links:

SMART-1: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/SMART-1

Space Situational Awareness: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Situational_Awareness

Near-Earth Objects - NEO Segment: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Situational_Awareness/Near-Earth_Objects_-_NEO_Segment

Animation, Images, Text, Credits: ESA/P.Carril/NELIOTA project/Space-X (Space Exploration Institute), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO/Theofanis Matsopoulos.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's Mars InSight Flexes Its Arm

NASA - InSight Mission patch.

Dec. 6, 2018

New images from NASA's Mars InSight lander show its robotic arm is ready to do some lifting.

Image above: This image from InSight's robotic-arm mounted Instrument Deployment Camera shows the instruments on the spacecraft's deck, with the Martian surface of Elysium Planitia in the background. The image was received on Dec. 4, 2018 (Sol8). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

With a reach of nearly 6 feet (2 meters), the arm will be used to pick up science instruments from the lander's deck, gently setting them on the Martian surface at Elysium Planitia, the lava plain where InSight touched down on Nov. 26.

Image above: An image of InSight's robotic arm, with its scoop and stowed grapple, poised above the Martian soil. The image was received on Dec. 4, 2018 (Sol 8). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

But first, the arm will use its Instrument Deployment Camera, located on its elbow, to take photos of the terrain in front of the lander. These images will help mission team members determine where to set InSight's seismometer and heat flow probe — the only instruments ever to be robotically placed on the surface of another planet.

"Today we can see the first glimpses of our workspace," said Bruce Banerdt, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "By early next week, we'll be imaging it in finer detail and creating a full mosaic."

Another camera, called the Instrument Context Camera, is located under the lander's deck. It will also offer views of the workspace, though the view won't be as pretty.

Image above: A partial view of the deck of NASA's InSight lander, where it stands on the Martian plains Elysium Planitia. The image was received on Dec. 4, 2018 (Sol 8). Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"We had a protective cover on the Instrument Context Camera, but somehow dust still managed to get onto the lens," said Tom Hoffman of JPL, InSight's project manager. "While this is unfortunate, it will not affect the role of the camera, which is to take images of the area in front of the lander where our instruments will eventually be placed."

Placement is critical, and the team is proceeding with caution. Two to three months could go by before the instruments have been situated and calibrated.

Over the past week and a half, mission engineers have been testing those instruments and spacecraft systems, ensuring they're in working order. A couple instruments are even recording data: a drop in air pressure, possibly caused by a passing dust devil, was detected by the pressure sensor. This, along with a magnetometer and a set of wind and temperature sensors, are part of a package called the Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem, which will collect meteorological data.

Animation above: Latest InSight Raw Images Animated. Cameras: Instrument Context Camera (ICC)/Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC)/Animation: Images Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/InSight/Animation Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace Studio 2018/Roland Berga.

More images from InSight's arm were scheduled to come down this past weekend. However, imaging was momentarily interrupted, resuming the following day. During the first few weeks in its new home, InSight has been instructed to be extra careful, so anything unexpected will trigger what's called a fault. Considered routine, it causes the spacecraft to stop what it is doing and ask for help from operators on the ground.

"We did extensive testing on Earth. But we know that everything is a little different for the lander on Mars, so faults are not unusual," Hoffman said. "They can delay operations, but we're not in a rush. We want to be sure that each operation that we perform on Mars is safe, so we set our safety monitors to be fairly sensitive initially."

Spacecraft engineers had already factored extra time into their estimates for instrument deployment to account for likely delays caused by faults. The mission's primary mission is scheduled for two Earth years, or one Mars year — plenty of time to gather data from the Red Planet's surface.

About InSight:

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, with significant contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Switzerland, Imperial College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the wind sensors.

For more information about InSight, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Andrew Good.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Dragon and Spacewalk Preps as New Crew Adapts to Space

ISS - Expedition 57 Mission patch.

December 6, 2018

A Dragon is chasing the International Space Station today to be gracefully captured by a robotic arm early Saturday. The expanded Expedition 57 crew prepared for Dragon’s arrival while conducting science, spacesuit checks and a variety of other station activities.

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft has been orbiting Earth for one day now carrying over 5,600 pounds of science, supplies and hardware for the crew. It is due to arrive Saturday around 6 a.m. when astronauts Alexander Gerst and Serena Auñón-Chancellor will command the Canadarm2 to grapple Dragon. The duo along with new Flight Engineer Anne McClain trained today for Dragon’s approach and rendezvous.

Image above: The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is pictured in July of 2018 approaching the International Space Station as both spacecraft were orbiting over the Greek island of Crete. Image Credit: NASA.

Gerst later worked on U.S. spacesuit maintenance cleaning their cooling loops. Serena worked on a cement study inside the orbital lab that could inform the construction of future lunar or Martian habitats.

McClain is getting used to her new home in space with fellow Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and David Saint-Jacques who have been onboard the station since Monday. This is Kononenko’s fourth stint at the station and he is unpacking the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft that launched him and his crew to space. McClain and Saint-Jacques are first-time space residents and they worked on a visual perception and orientation study today. The duo also packed up biology research gear that will be stowed in Dragon for return to Earth after it arrives on Saturday.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Kononenko also joined Flight Engineer Sergey Prokopyev to ready a pair of Russian Orlan spacesuits for a spacewalk on Dec. 11. The duo will inspect the Soyuz MS-09 crew ship that will return Prokopyev, Gerst and Serena back to Earth Dec. 19 U.S. time.

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

SpaceX Dragon: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex

Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft: https://go.nasa.gov/2QrzAcX

visual perception and orientation study: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7484

Soyuz MS-09 crew ship: https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/06/contact-and-capture-three-crew-members.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Marck Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Greenland ice loss quickening

ESA - European Space Agency (new) patch.

6 December 2018

Using a 25-year record of ESA satellite data, recent research shows that the pace at which Greenland is losing ice is getting faster.

The research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, uses radar altimetry data gathered by the ERS, Envisat and CryoSat missions between 1992 and 2016.

Losing ice

Radar altimeters record the height of the surface topography along the satellite’s ground track. They precisely measure the height of ice, water and land by timing the interval between the transmission and reception of very short radar pulses.

Over time, these measurements are used, for example, to work out how the height – or elevation – of huge ice sheets is changing, which, in turn, can be used to monitor ice loss.

Sentinel family

Although the research team, working through ESA’s Climate Change Initiative, found only modest elevation changes in the early 1990s, the pace of thinning is clear in the satellite observations from 2003 onwards.

“A pattern of thinning appears to dominate a large fraction of the ice sheet margins at the beginning of the millennium, with individual outlet glaciers exhibiting large thinning rates,” says Louise Sandberg Sørensen, the paper’s lead author.

Greenland ice change, 2015

“Over the full 25-year period, the general picture shows much larger volume losses are experienced in west, northwest and southeast basins of Greenland compared to the more steady-state situations in the colder far north.”

This, according to Dr Sørensen, highlights the strong climate sensitivity of the outlet glaciers of Greenland as well as the ongoing need for reliable, long-term monitoring of climate variables that help to improve climate models and inform policy responses.

The Greenland ice sheet is an important cog in the global climate system with its meltwater, for example, influencing ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. Ongoing monitoring of the ice sheet is equally important in understanding its contribution to the extent and changing rate in sea-level rise.

The more recent Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission is also being used to monitor changing ice height.

Greenland ice height from Sentinel-3B

ESA’s Climate Change Initiative is a research programme that uses four decades of Earth observation archives established by ESA and its Member States to support the climate information requirements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In addition to the Greenland ice sheet, the programme is developing long-term, consistent data products based on satellite derived observations for a further 22 essential climate variables required by the international science community to understand the Earth system.

Related links:

Earth and Planetary Science Letters: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X18302863?via%3Dihub

ESA's Climate Change Initiative: http://cci.esa.int/

DTU National Space Institute: http://www.space.dtu.dk/english/about_nsi

Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center: http://www.nersc.no/index2.php

Related missions:

CryoSat: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/CryoSat

Envisat: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Envisat

ERS: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/ERS_overview

Earth observation: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/Planetary Visions/Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Ariane 6 on the way to flight

ESA - European Space Agency patch (old).

6 December 2018

This has been an intense year for Ariane 6 development, with progress boosted across Europe: plants are manufacturing new parts using novel methods, all engines have been tested, and the construction of launch facilities is well underway.

Artist's view of the configuration of Ariane 6 using four boosters (A64)

ESA has worked with an industrial network led by prime contractor ArianeGroup, of more than 600 companies in 13 European countries, including 350 small- and medium-sized enterprises, to fine-tune the design and start production. Meanwhile, France’s CNES space agency has been preparing its launch facilities at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Details on all these activities were recently shared at the 69th International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany – along with two papers submitted to the congress: launch system and launcher system, here are the highlights:

https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/STS/Ariane6_Presentation2018.pdf

https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/STS/IAC-18,D2,1,1,x48586.pdf

https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/STS/IAC-18,D2,1,2,x42969.pdf

Europe's launcher for a new decade

Ariane 6 possible missions and configurations

Europe’s new Ariane 6 launcher covers a broad range of commercial and institutional applications while dramatically decreasing the cost of launches compared to Ariane 5.

Enabled by ESA’s Light satellite Low-cost Launch opportunity Initiative, a multiple launch service for small satellites starting mid-2021 will offer cost-effective launch opportunities for satellites of under 400 kg, via a rideshare approach on launchers such as Ariane 6, and its smaller cousin Vega-C.

The Ariane 6’s core stage is powered by Vulcain 2.1, an upgraded engine derived from Ariane 5’s Vulcain 2; its upper stage is powered by the reignitable Vinci engine. Two or four P120C solid-fuel boosters for Ariane 6, common with Vega-C, will be strapped on to provide thrust at liftoff.

The P120C and Vulcain 2.1 development models have started their ground testing, the Vinci is now qualified. This leads to the next significant milestone: the delivery of the Ariane 6 qualification model, to start combined tests in French Guiana at the end of 2019.

The second P120C model will be tested in French Guiana early next year, to verify its design and performance.

The Ariane 6 upper stage will be tested at the DLR German Aerospace Center newly developed P5.2 test facility in Lampoldshausen at the end of 2019.

Specialist factories have started production

Casings for the P120C boosters are formed from specially developed carbon composite fibre, which is wound at Avio’s Colleferro factory in Italy.

The nozzles for the boosters will be produced at a rate of 35 per year from a highly automated facility opened in July in Le-Haillan, France.

Tour Avio's Colleferro factory

This April, MT-Aerospace – one of the main industrial partners of ArianeGroup on the Ariane 6 project – integrated the first hydrogen tanks of Ariane 6’s upper stage liquid propulsion module at their Bremen, Germany, facility.

Airbus Defence and Space opened a facility this month in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands, to develop, build, test and qualify the engine frames for the Vulcain and Vinci engines. The Vinci frame will be transported to Bremen. The Vulcain frame will be sent to Les Mureaux, France, for final assembly with the Ariane 6 core stage.

Hydrogen tank for Ariane 6 upper stage

By the end of this year the ArianeGroup facility in Les Mureaux – hosting the largest friction stir welding machines in Europe – will be poised to begin producing the Ariane 6 cryogenic tanks at a rate of seven to eight stages at a time for Ariane 6’s lower liquid propulsion module.

Testing the limits of Ariane 6 propulsion

Testing is about stretching the limits of performance to gain a detailed understanding of how components work, not just under normal operating conditions but also at higher temperatures, pressures, and with different fuel mixtures.

The P120C booster underwent hot firing at Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana in July 2018. In 135 seconds it burned 142 tonnes of propellant.

First hot firing of P120C motor for Vega-C and Ariane 6

The Vulcain 2.1 engine will help to propel Ariane 6 in the first 10 minutes of flight, up to an altitude of 200 km, delivering 135 tonnes of thrust in vacuum. It has a simplified and more robust nozzle, a 3D-printed gas generator, and a heater for oxygen tank pressurisation.

Vulcain 2.1 engine first hot firing

The test campaign started in January with the first test firing at the DLR German Aerospace Center test facilities in Lampoldshausen. A total of 11 successful subsequent tests of the engine brought its total accumulated burn time to over 105 minutes. The second test campaign began in October.

Vinci is the re-ignitable engine of the upper stage that increases the operational flexibility of Ariane 6 and ensures that the engine safely deorbits at the end of the mission.

Vinci engine qualified in tests

This engine was successfully tested more than 140 times and reignited multiple times in succession in near vacuum to complete its qualification. Final testing in October brought a total of more than 14 hours of operation.

Launch facilities taking shape at Europe's Spaceport
 

Timelapse chantier Ariane 6

About 600 people are currently employed in the construction of the Ariane 6 launch pad, which is 28.5 metres deep and 200 metres wide, formed with enough concrete to fill 67 Olympic sized swimming pools – approximately 167,500 cubic m.

In September, the 700 tonne launch table that will support Ariane 6 at launch was positioned on the launch pad.

The 8200 tonne mobile gantry that will store and protect Ariane 6 until it is retracted five hours before each launch, is currently being erected.

The steel deflectors that will funnel the fiery plumes of Ariane 6 into the exhaust tunnels at liftoff will soon be installed at the base of the launch pad.

Related articles & link:

Ariane 6 launch-pad: http://blogs.esa.int/ariane6/2018/06/01/deflecting-the-fiery-plumes-of-ariane-6/

ESA’s Light satellite Low-cost Launch opportunity Initiative: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Shared_launch_opportunities_for_light_satellites

69th International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany: http://www.iafastro.org/

Related links:

Airbus Defence and Space: http://www.airbus.com/space.html

ArianeGroup: https://www.ariane.group/en/

Avio: http://www.avio.com/en/

CNES: https://cnes.fr/en

MT Aerospace: http://www.mt-aerospace.de/

Space Transportation: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ESA/D. Ducros/ArianeGroup/Holding-Hill Media/Euronews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Science Shows Human Impact of Clean Air Policies

NASA logo.

Dec. 5, 2018

As local, federal, and international policies targeting the quality of the air we breathe continue to evolve, questions arise of how effective existing policies have been in improving human health. For example, how many lives have been saved by tough air pollution policies? How many illnesses have been caused by lax policies?

Image above: Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution declined in the United States between 1990 (left) and 2010 (right), leading to thousands of lives saved, according to researcher Jason West. Image Credit: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

NASA recently initiated two projects to provide some answers drawing on its scientific expertise and global observations of air pollution from spacecraft orbiting Earth. It is information air quality managers say they need to refine current policies and develop effective new ones.

One project demonstrated that improvements in air quality in the United States between 1990 and 2010 reduced deaths from air pollution by nearly half. The other project, taking a global view of asthma, found that high levels of air pollution caused millions of emergency room visits annually.

Image above: The study of asthma impacts caused by air pollution used data on several pollutants including ozone. Shown here are annual average ozone concentrations from 2015; red indicates high concentrations, blue indicates lower levels. Image Credit: Environmental Health Perspectives.

Both projects are part of NASA’s ongoing efforts to help air quality managers and policymakers solve clean air problems using NASA data and products. These quick-turnaround, high-priority projects are funded by the agency’s Earth Science Division drawing on expertise in its Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team.

The project that focused on U.S. air quality improvements used a 21-year computer simulation to estimate air pollutant concentrations, combining that with county population and baseline mortality rates. The findings showed that pollution-related deaths from heart disease, pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and stroke declined as a result of air quality improvements.

“We’ve invested a lot of resources as a society to clean up our air,” said study co-author Jason West, professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “This study demonstrates that those changes have had a real impact with fewer people dying each year due to exposure to outdoor air pollution.”

Image above: Jason West, University of North Carolina: “We’ve invested a lot of resources as a society to clean up our air. Our study demonstrates that those changes have had a real impact with fewer people dying each year due to exposure to outdoor air pollution.” Image Credit: University of North Carolina.

In 2010 alone, the study, published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, found that some 40,000 lives were saved, compared to levels projected if air quality stayed at 1990 levels. Deaths from air pollution over this period decreased by 47 percent, from 135,000 to 71,000.

Paul Miller, deputy director of Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management in Boston, explained that West’s study provides a necessary retrospective view on the effect of air quality policy.

“We rarely have the time or resources to take a look back at what has been achieved and what has not,” Miller said. “West’s research can verify whether air quality strategies are helping us make progress and build confidence in our public health efforts.” 

Julie McDill, executive director the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association Inc. in Baltimore, shared that West’s findings will help her explain the importance of finding solutions for air quality challenges.

“I will be able to use the information about the number of lives saved as a result of fine particulate matter and ozone reductions when talking in general about the importance of air pollution control programs to human health,” she said.

Image above: Susan Anenberg, George Washington University: “Our findings suggest that policies aimed at cleaning up the air can reduce the global burden of asthma and improve respiratory health around the world.” Image Credit: George Washington University.

The second project, led by Susan Anenberg, associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University, Washington, quantified air pollution’s impact on asthma cases around the globe. The team used atmospheric models, ground monitors, and data from NASA’s Aura spacecraft.

That study in Environmental Health Perspectives found that 9-23 million and 5-10 million annual visits to the emergency room for asthma worldwide in 2015 may have resulted from breathing in air polluted by ozone and fine particulate matter respectively, and that car emissions and other types of pollution may be a significant source of serious asthma attacks.

“Our findings suggest that policies aimed at cleaning up the air can reduce the global burden of asthma and improve respiratory health around the world,” Anenberg said.

According to Anenberg, nonprofits, policymakers, and air quality researchers can put these findings to work by using them to target known sources of pollution like ozone, fine particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide.

Getting these types of science-based findings about the health impacts of air pollution out to policymakers, air quality managers and the public is another goal of West’s project. Team member Bryan Duncan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, is nearing completion of an online resource filled with satellite-based air quality estimates, health impacts, and data on ozone, fine particulate matter, and other pollutants. The new resource will be posted on the Air Quality Observations from Space website at NASA Goddard.

Related links:

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/15003/2018/

Environmental Health Perspectives: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP3766

Air Quality Observations from Space: https://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Sarah Loff/Steve Cole.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch